Oh no!

Oh no I've  been released :(.  My pregnancy is not goings smoothly as I hoped and I can no longer safely do my calling so I'm moving on.  It's been such a long time that I have no idea how I'll sit through all those long "adult" classes where we don't get to sing loudly and stand on our chairs and act silly.  I will miss this calling a lot (ok maybe not the amount of weekly prep required), I learned so much about the basic gospel of Jesus Christ and have loved getting to help the kids gain and share their testimonies through music.   I will no longer be posting weekly posts but you are welcome to use any ideas and/or email questions or suggestions.  Than you for all the choristers who have shared their ideas as well that made my calling so much easier!  Good luck everyone in the final stages of preparing for your sacrament meeting program!

4th of July Singing Time

There are some amazing ambitious ideas floating around the internet for 4th of July singing time and while I applaud those whose ambition is so exuberant I am a bit more laid back this year since I'm feeling huge, hot, and pregnant ha ha!  So here's my plan for Jr. and Sr. Primary this Sunday.

Jr. Primary
I'm going to talk to them a little bit about our flag and some of the etiquette involved in the flag such as how we stand whenever it passes us (like in parades, or in Boy Scout activities), how to properly put your hand over your heart so you proudly salute the flag, etc.  Then I have some flags I bought in the Target dollar bins that I'll hand out to 10-12 people at a time and have them line up and march back and forth while we sing My Flag, My Flag (flipchart here) and we'll practice standing and saluting as it passes each row.  Next we'll talk about the configuration of the flag and the importance of the 13 stripes, 50 stars, and the colors red (valour), white (purity) and blue (color of the chief).  We'll assemble a little flag I made (not to scale sadly) while we sing My Country Tis of Thee (flipchart here).  I'll let kids come up and lead the wiggle songs as needed with a flag perhaps.

Sr. Primary
I made a patriotic booklet of my own here and I intend to talk about all the same things as mentioned for the Jr. Primary only in a little more depth and after each little fact we'll sing one of the patriotic songs listed.  My Sr. Primary loves it when they get to sing the "big people songs" from the hymn book and they love it when I treat them like my "primary tabernacle choir"

Patriotic Booklet

The Hot or Cold Game

I had a couple new-ish choristers ask for details on the hot/cold game so here you go!
Pick an object to hide, we've used a pass-a-long card, a toy car from my diaper bag, a little laminated CTR shield...really anything will work.
You have one child leave the room (have a teacher accompany if needed)and give a 30 second time limit for a second child to hide the object. I must pass along my knowledge by saying that it's important you make rules for the hiding such as; no hiding object on another person, and at least part of the object must be in view.
Bring the child back in and begin singing getting louder when they are "hot" (near the object) and quiet when they are "cold." it's a perfect review game and fun plus it introduces the concept of dynamics perfectly! Have fun with it and coax the singing by being overly dramatic in your own louds and soft!

Reviews and last minute ideas!

Sadly I've been a very lazy chorister for a couple of weeks and used lots of old standby ideas and review games. Surprisingly these have been some very rewarding and fun Sundays! Here's a few that have been easy and successful for both Senior and Junior Primary!

-Name that Tune!
Roll the dice and have the pianist play the number of notes rolled. When they guess the song then sing it! Junior primary was awesome at this! In Senior primary we split into two teams and made it a fun competition!

-What's Your Favorite Song?
Reward them for doing well on a review song by letting them sing their favorite songs after each review song!

-Hot and Cold!
Everyone's played this one so I'll spare you all the repeat of details!

-Row by Row
I use this a lot when teaching and reviewing...give each row a phrase and the corresponding flip chart picture. Give them one minute to really learn it with their teacher then sing it having each row stand up when it's their turn. At the end trade phrases and go again until everyone's had a chance to learn each phrase! Yeah teamwork!

Mother's Day Singing Time

Well I'm behind schedule this week and worn out due to the fact that we're expecting baby number 3!! and I'm feeling morning sickness pretty much all day ha ha!  So I went to Pattie's Primary Place and borrowed and tweaked an idea.  Here's what I plan to do.  I found all the images on google image search and plan to print them out, color the super mom, and laminate them with their corresponding word action on the back.  Then I'll tape a song to each one.  During singing time I'll pick a reverent person to come help us learn about all the super things super moms do and we'll sing one of our program songs and a few others using the corresponding item actions.  It should be fun and mix things up while still getting them to practice program songs!  Yeah!
Mothers Day

When I Am Baptized

Because this song has so many important doctrinal truths to teach and there is the beautiful metaphor between the clean earth and our clean lives after baptism and repentance I decided to do a less literal flip chart and more rebus style one.  I like occassionally using these kinds because it gives me an opportunity to really talk about the doctrine and the pictures are just reminders of the lyrics while we're learning.  It doesn't take a lot of outside preparation and really becomes an interactive teaching process while we learn the song.  I'm excited we get to learn this song since it's one of my favorite baptism songs.  Something I want to be careful and aware of is that there may be questions about those children who did not get baptized at age 8 for whatever reason and also questions that may arise about children who pass away before being able to be baptized since we have a few young children who have passed away in our ward.  I think it's going to be a fun Sunday, plus we get to finish getting ready for our Mother's Day Performance!

When I Am Baptized

How to Transpose a Song for a Medley

Some of you were wondering how to transpose a song like I did for the medley I'm using for Mother's Day last year and this year.  Here's a step by step, it's soooo easy I promise!

Go to the Children's Songbook page on lds.org HERE
Click on the song you want to transpose
The interactive music player will pop up in a window.  On the left side of the player is a section heading called "KEY" 
Use the pull down menu or the arrows to raise or lower the key until it matches the one you want it to. 

Print it out and your good to go!